.....\ ,'" } .;.. \ \ \\ .""'....." f .. " '* . . . ' " " " ... " ! I / } , 4 \ err j 4. >1: v.,. i! 4: 39 'i. , l' "- , \ ) \ \ \ , \ . " ' ^ ,\ .. t-." ,, .. jt\ ÌJ ..I , \" J y-ll- ë' .- ) \to ' '" .. - Jj -" }f J \\.: '" '" .... . ...): ...... , . .il , J ' , f , '.lft (\/ \ '. I - ..:::..' " " " --t ' I -' j .w-. ",- d '" Ox., ."'$ , " ).. r; t .. - '" - ......... v' " p' . "........ ..,... '. ....... ":Ift'- ........-- .. þ \ , I .. , ..... ...; . ........:- " ---..,----,.-,. ,. ... \ -) 1'" /j)\1 -- '\; ,. C7 <> ( . -. ;,. ......;.<)' . , , . ' , , ' >^" ,., * . "." (f " f f. J, v. .. 'í'" "" J. :::..:j .':1 \ , :sf' " , .. A.' --...' >'] ((f agree! It's a shame! But must you go tch tchk every damn time?)) J . Newman, another of the people who admire him as a forthright champion of WIne, he bought a strip in each of two vineyards not far from the first one-the Mazys-ChambertIn and the Bonnes-Mares. Together, the three strips total only three and a quarter acres-a holdIng that would be trivial in Bordeaux but is perfectly respectable in Burgundy, where some of the best growers till strips no more than fifty feet long and wide enough for only two rows of vines, or enough to yield a barrel of wine a year. The gOIng was somewhat easier in Bordeaux, though the vIneyards there, being much larger, are naturally a good deal more expensive. In 1950, Lichine had let it be known that he was interest- ed in buying a château, and one day to- ward the end of that year, while he was staying briefly at the home of an old friend named H. Seymour Wel- ler, who is the manager of the famous ... "... ',' "" , : \' . ,'. ,.'. . .. J { , , , , ' , J I . ..... J "'\. , . . f I' . !\ '", ..J, t \ t' , " J - " j t . . Château Haut-Brion, in the Graves district, he received a telephone call from a broker informing him that the Château Le Prieuré, one of the lesser- known vineyards in the Medoc district's Cantenac commune, was up for sale. Lichine, of course, was famIliar in a genera] way with Le Prieure and he had some years before sampled and enjoyed its wine, so, accompanied by Weller and the Duc Pierre de Mon- tesquIou- F ezensac, a producer of Ar- magnac, he hurried to Cantenac in d state of high anticipation. Close scru- tiny of the property, however, revealed some serious defects. Over the years, as the vineyard was handed down from one generation to the next, some of the heirs had sold their parcels to outsiders, with the result that what remaIned of the family holding was scattered all over the commune; moreover, the vines in these split-up remnants were in poor shape, owing to neglect, and the château itself, while rich in historical associa- tions-it was a Benedictine priory dat- ing from the sixteenth century-was clearly uninhabitable. (In Bordeaux, confusingly, not only the vIneyard but the house on it is called a château, even if it is only a shack.) As the three men drove back to Haut-Brion, Lichine fel] into a deep reverie. For all its faults, Le Prieure appealed to him, and the house, run down as it was, appealed to him just as much as the future he could en vision for the vine- yard. "True, there were no bathrooms, and the only running water was rain leaking through the roof," he recalls. "But I thought it had possibilitIes. There was an aIr of enchantment about It." When he expressed this sentiment to his companions, they were horrified A man buys a vineyard not for enchant- ment but as an investment, they told him sharpl}. Lichine was still ponder- ing their well-meant advice when he